Konrad was a profound scholar of Raphael, and widely acknowledged as such. He was in addition ‘athletic’ in his appetite for understanding and interpretation, that crossed time and geography. He was therefore both wide and deep.

Larry Salander has been newly dubbed the Bernie Madoff of the art world. He now sits in prison awaiting trial for a 100 count indictment. It is alleged that Salander would sell 50% interest in paintings to multiple parties even though he did not own the paintings, use paintings he didn’t own for collateral for…

In 1979, Andy Warhol hand-painted a BMW M1 and decided that it was “much better than a work of art”. The car, which Warhol covered with red, blue, green, and yellow strokes that blur together to suggest speed, is currently on display in Grand Central Terminal, along with three other artist designed cars, including ones…

A 53 year old as yet unidentified heroin addict stole upwards of 39 paintings from various locations, including Yale’s Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale and the New Haven Free Public Library. The accused would steal the paintings by stuffing them under his clothes and then bring them to a drug house, where he…

There is a new twist in the corpse as art material thread of contemporary art history. Russian artist Andrei Molodkin, whose work will appear in this year’s Venice Biennale, and whose current exhibition at Daneyal Mahmood Gallery (through April 11), has developed a technique to transform corpses into crude oil that can be turned into…

Another 74 jobs will be cut from the merchandising staff at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is in addition to the 53 jobs that were cut over the last year. It is feared that a total of ten percent of the museum staff, or a total of 250 jobs, will be cut from the…

Eight of nine paintings that had mysteriously gone missing in 1987 from Noortman Master Paintings, the gallery founded and run by Robert Noortman in Maastricht, The Netherlands, have turned up 22 years later, when they were snagged in a Dutch police sting operation. These missing paintings included La Clairière by Renoir, Bords de la Seine…

Clintel Steed Mark Borghi Fine Arts Bridge Art Fair Clintel Steed’s powerful new paintings are among the best works on view at this year’s youthful, bustling – and very fun – Bridge Art Fair. Grouped generously in Mark Borghi’s gallery space, Steed’s large canvasses are a perfect fit for the setting; arresting and sustaining as…

The Armory Show 2009 opened today. artcritical editor DAVID COHENwas there with his iPhone Armory, First Day Weigh-In What’s the best way to cope with a Recession–if you’re in the artworld? Expand. And how must you behave? With utter nonchalance, of course. Hence the Armory–not content simply to be the behemoth fair of contemporary, primary-market work, now…

Two rare samples of rugs designed by Francis Bacon have turned up in the collection of an Iranian dealer, who bought them several years ago from an elderly lady who had them on the floor in her hallway. These rugs, which have the artists name worked into their designs, may have appeared in Francis Bacon’s…